"Skip" Wilson Leads Day 1 with 165 Remaining; Cunningham, Idema & Elezra Lurking
The 2012 World Series of Poker continued on Wednesday with Event #27 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E., which attracted 889 entrants and created a prize pool of $1,200,150. The top 96 players are slated to take home a minimum payday of $2,676, with the eventual winner taking home $267,081. The man best positioned to make a deep run is Karle “Skip” Wilson, who finished Day 1 as chip leader with 165 players remaining.
Play was low key for the first couple of levels, but then the eliminations began. One of the earliest was runner-up in this event in 2009, Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri. His demise came when an unknown player in Seat 2 had the bring-in with the 
and Barbieri, who was fresh off a third-place finish in Event 13: $1,500 Limit Hold'em for $84,388, completed. A player in Seat 7, who was showing the 
, made the call as did the bring-in and it was three-way action to the turn.
Barbieri proceeded to bet, which both his opponents called, and then he fired again on fifth street. Seat 2 got out of the way while Seat 7 called and then raised when Barbieri bet sixth. The raise was enough to cover the short-stacked Sugar Bear, and he committed his stack.
Barbieri: 
/ 
/ 
Seat 7: 
/ 
/ 
Seat 2: (x-x) / 
fold
Seat 7 had a low but needed help if he was going to take the high. Unfortunately for Barbieri, the on seventh gave his opponent a pair and the scoop. "Good game guys," Barbieri said. Other early eliminations included Shaun Deeb, Maxwell Troy, Owais Ahmed, Erick Lindgren, Greg Raymer, James Woods and PokerNews’ own Rich Ryan.
The middle stages of Day 1 were characterized by eliminations as the blinds caught up with the stacks. An extensive list of pros met their end during this time including Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Matt Glantz, Men “The Master” Nguyen and Jonathan Duhamel.
The 2010 WSOP Main Event Champion fell during limit hold’em when action folded to him in the cutoff and he raised. Both the button and small blind got out of the way, but Ben Lukas opted to defend from the big. The 
flop saw Lukas check and Duhamel, who had 1,400 left, put out a bet. Lukas sprang to like with a check-raise, Duhamel three-bet before calling off to a Lukas four-bet.
Showdown
| Duhamel |   |
| Lukas |   |
Both players had flopped middle pair, but Duhamel had kicker issues. Neither the 
turn nor 
river would provide him the help he needed and he exited in the middle of Level 7.
The defending champion of the event, Aaron Steury, put up a good fight but ultimately succumbed in the last level of the evening during Razz. It happened when he had a 
out in front of him and was faced with a completion by an opponent behind him who was showing an 
. Steury then raised it up and his opponent quickly made it three bets to go. Steury flicked in his last remaining chips and the two players turned their hands over.
Steury: 
/
/
Opponent: 
/
/
By the time fifth street had rolled around, Steury had got to his feet and started leaving the tournament area, ensuring that there would be a new champion.
While hundreds fell, some players managed to survive. Tom Schneider (28,300), Marcel Luske (28,900), Linda Johnson (30,500), Eli Elezra (35,500), Christian Harder (37,100), Rep Porter (41,500) and John Monnette (42,000) all advanced to Day 2.
Of course some managed to do more than just survive, they thrived. Joining Wilson toward the top of the chip counts is Steve Brown (73,600), Jason Brown (71,200), Daniel Idema (58,100), Justin Young (57,000), Mike O’Donnell (56,300), Allen Cunningham (55,200), Huck Seed (52,000), Chip Jett (49,000) and David Williams (45,600), just to name a few.
Day 2 will begin at 1 PM PST on Thursday, so join us then as the remaining field looks to play through the money en route to the final table.